Air India announced on August 11 that it will add 24 domestic flights beginning August 20. The new flights include two from Delhi to Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad, as well as two from Mumbai to Chennai and Hyderabad, as well as one new frequency on the Mumbai-Bengaluru and Ahmedabad-Pune routes.
Air India has a fleet of 70 narrowbody aircraft, 54 of which are currently operational. The remaining 16 planes will gradually return to service by early 2023.
Routes on which 24 flights will be operational
“The additional 24 flights include two new frequencies from Delhi to Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad, and from Mumbai to Chennai and Hyderabad, as well as one new frequency on the Mumbai-Bengaluru route and Ahmedabad-Pune route,” the airline said in a statement.
Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson said, “Over the past six months, Air India has been working closely with our partners to return aircraft to service, and we are delighted that this effort is now bearing fruit.”
Air India’s move comes a day after the civil aviation ministry announced that it will lift ticket price restrictions imposed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Airlines can freely price their tickets
With this announcement, Indian airlines including Air India, Vistara, SpiceJet, IndiGo, and GoFirst will be able to freely price their tickets.
To prevent ticket prices from skyrocketing once restrictions on air travel were lifted, the government imposed a minimum and maximum band based on flight duration.
With the launch of Akasa Air and the revival of Jet Airways, competition in the Indian aviation space is expected to heat up.
Air India, which was a government-owned airline until earlier this year, has now gone private. On January 27, the airline was returned to Tata Group after 69 years as a government entity.
Talace Pvt. Ltd., a unit of Tata Sons, submitted the winning bid of 18,000 crore as the enterprise value of Air India against a reserve price of 12,906 crore. J.R.D. Tata, an industrialist and aviator, founded Air India in 1932 as Tata Airlines.
